North Carolina Takes A Small Step in Limiting Child Marriage

North Carolina’s Governor Roy Cooper signed Senate Bill 35, which increases the minimum age for marriage from 14 to 16 years old (under certain circumstances), into law on August 26. The state has been slow to address the issue of child marriage relative to neighboring states including South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and Georgia, all of which have minimum age requirements for marriage that range from 16 to 18 years old.

“This legislation is an important step toward ending child marriage in North Carolina and instituting more protections for children,” Cooper said in a press statement. “While it falls short of raising the age of marriage to 18, it will make our state a safer place for children.”

Child marriages are dangerous because they restrict power availed to the minor involved. These marriages can result in various forms of long-term harm to child brides, including heightened risk of domestic violence, early pregnancy, damage to physical and mental health, inability to continue their education, and economic hardship.

Child marriages also provide a loophole around statutory rape laws, as federal law recognizes a valid defense of sexual abuse of a minor where “the persons engaging in the sexual act were at the time married to each other,” as stated in 18 U.S.C Section 2243(c)(2), incentivizing sexual predators to pressure a child into marriage to avoid punishment, particularly in instances of pregnancy, and often forcing a child to marry her rapist.

Since minors have no legal power over themselves, it is difficult for them to escape these marriages, as one cannot start a legal proceeding for divorce without a guardian. If a minor tries to flee in cases of domestic violence, she would be unable to go to most women’s shelters, and may be sent back to her abuser, who would be her legal guardian, by the police.

While the original North Carolina bill proposed raising the minimum age of marriage to 18 years, the final version of the law bans child marriages that exceed a four-year age difference, so a 16-year-old would still be prohibited from marrying someone 21 years or older.

According to an April report in the Charlotte Observer, Democratic Senator Natasha Marcus, one of the bill’s sponsors, said she was deeply disappointed by amendments reducing the original 18-year-old minimum age requirement because of the “huge age difference” between a 16-year-old and a 20-year-old.

This new ruling also notably does not void previous child marriages performed in North Carolina, of which there were 12,637 between 2000 and 2018.

A study by the International Center for Research on Women published in February 2021 found that 93% of the child marriage applications in North Carolina were between a minor and an adult (as opposed to two minors getting married). According to Unchained at Last, an advocacy group aimed at ending child marriage in the U.S., nationwide between 2000 and 2018, nearly 300,000 children under age 18 were married to adults. Of those marriages, 86% involved minor girls and 14% involved minor boys.

Because North Carolina allowed younger teenagers to be married to adults, the state has become a hotbed for child trafficking, including a destination for out-of-state residents seeking to marry a minor.

Republican Representative Jason Saine was quoted as saying in an August 26 News & Observer article, “As a lifelong North Carolinian, I am proud that my state has become a top-tier destination for people who are visiting and relocating from all over the world. Unfortunately, my state has become a destination for predators who want to traffic and marry children.”

Child marriages additionally fall under the scope of forced marriages. Unchained at Last defines that, in a forced marriage, one or both parties enters without full, free, and informed consent. All child marriages are considered a form of forced marriage as at least one party in the situation is a minor, which means they legally cannot offer consent.

According to the U.S. State Department, “The U.S. Department of State views forced marriage as a human rights abuse and, in the case of minors, a form of child abuse.” Unchained at Last has reported forced marriage often means a lifetime of rape, domestic abuse, and servitude, along with the deprivation of reproductive rights, financial rights, and basic human rights. The group also states that “[f]or women and girls, forced marriage often means forced motherhood.”

While the total number of child marriages in the U.S. has been decreasing, with 2,493 marriages in 2018 compared to 11,421 in 2008, Unchained at Last notes that the number will not get to zero without legislative intervention.

The minimum age for marriage varies state to state. Six states — Delaware, Minnesota, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and, more recently, Rhode Island and New York — have banned child marriage altogether, requiring spouses to be at least 18 years old. Alaska allows 14-year-olds to marry, and nine states — California, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Washington, West Virginia, and Wyoming — have no minimum age specified for marriage. The remaining states have minimum marriage ages between 15 and 17 years old.

According to a May 5 NC Policy Watch article, while the bill was still under review by the North Carolina Senate Judiciary Committee, Dr. Judy Wiegand decided to submit her testimony about her experience as a child bride in Virginia. After being sexually assaulted and becoming pregnant at 13 by a 16-year-old acquaintance, she was pressured by her family and church to marry the boy. According to Weigand, her then-husband abused both her and her child. Although she was legally allowed to marry, she was unable to work due to child labor laws. With no money, Weigand had dropped out of school and was reliant upon state support and food stamps. It was not until she reached 18 years old (five years later) that she could get divorced.

“The words child and marriage should not be in the same sentence,” Weigand said.